1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to data processing and, in particular, to protocols between groups within a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to forwarding of diagnostic messages from one member of the group to another.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems or networks with distributed processing have utilized certain operating rules. The rules are used, for example, in managing the overall network, the transfer of data between the nodes and for control and synchronization purposes. These rules, their meaning and sequencing are known as protocols. Protocols are typically organized into groups based on the part of the system to which they relate. At times during the execution of a protocol, other protocols might become involved. The protocol originally in execution or performance is typically referred to as a first or original protocol. When an original protocol required a response from some other protocol, that other protocol is referred to as a nested protocol.
A nested protocol is thus a protocol that is invoked from another protocol, the invoking or original protocol. The nested protocol by definition completes before the original protocol completes, so the nested protocol is contained within the originating protocol. A nested protocol might be another protocol within the same group, or it might be a protocol of a different group. Further, a nested protocol to an original protocol might require a response from still another nested protocol. This multiple nesting of protocols formed what were termed layers of protocols. Layers of protocols could extend several layers deep.
During the execution of either original protocol or nested protocols, a member of the network which is participating in the protocol often may have need to send certain types of messages to the protocol originating member. Typical of such messages are those which indicate errors, partial completion, additional information, warning information and the like.
These types of messages can be termed diagnostic messages to differentiate them from other messages which members might want to send as part of a protocol. Diagnostic messages are intended to be seen by the protocol originator.
It was often the case, however, that the message-requesting member, or requestor node, lacked adequate information as to why a request failed, particularly in the case of nested protocols. The requestor node typically had to go to each node that was a participating member in order to obtain the required information, or go to another source, such as a message log, searching for all diagnostic messages pertaining to the original request. In the case of nested protocols, the nested protocol requester was not the same as the original protocol requester.
There were other problems with the original requestor node trying to get all of the diagnostic messages in these situations. The requestor node might not know the identity of all members that participated in the protocol; or the identity of all groups; or which, if any, nested protocols were involved. When a nested protocol used a “hidden” group, such as a file manager or resource manager, the user/requestor had no knowledge about the existence or use of that group and that group was not accessible to the user. Thus, the requester node lacked a user interface to retrieve diagnostic messages. In some cases, a group may not have been configured to keep logs of diagnostic messages. Further, it was not easy to relate nested protocols to each other when they were executed and came from different groups. It would thus be desirable to provide a data processing system and method that would indicate the relation of diagnostic messages during the execution of protocols in data processing networks.